DISPATCHES FROM MOON OF ALABAMA, BY "B"
This article is part of an ongoing series of dispatches from Moon of Alabama
Meanwhile, people older than 30 are scratching their heads and saying, "What the hell is TikTok?"
The Trump administration is working to dispossess the Chinese company ByteDance by blackmailing it to sell its valuable TikTok business to a U.S. company for a bargain price. This to the benefit of yet unknown people.
False allegations over the security of TikTok user data were used to threaten the prohibition of the video app in its U.S. market. In the U.S. alone the app is used by more than 80 million people. It plays an important part in the youth culture and music business. Faced with a potential close down of its prime business in one of its most profitable markets ByteDance had no choice but to agree to negotiate about a sale.
ByteDance declined an offer by two of its U.S. based minority investors to buy the business for $50 billion as that price was far below its presumed value. The White House stepped in to find a new buyer with enough change to pay for a deal. As the largest social media companies - Facebook, Apple, Google and Twitter - are already under congressional investigations for their monopoly positions in U.S. markets none of them could be the potential buyer. Facebook has in fact just launched a rip-off of the TikTok product under the name Reels. It is trying to poach TikTok 'creators' for its own service. Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg has warned of Chinese competition. He would be the biggest winner should TikTok be thrown out of the U.S. market.
The White House finally came up with Microsoft as a potential buyer. But Microsoft has historically been unsuccessful in the social media business. It also does other business with China and is reluctant to get involved in a move that could damage that business.
Despite Microsoft's lack of interest President Trump personally pressed for a shotgun marriage. The Democrats are supporting him in this. But neither ByteDance nor Microsoft really want to make the deal.
ByteDance would prefer to move the TikTok business into an independent company:
TikTok could become totally independent from its Chinese owner ByteDance to continue operating overseas, according to a source who has been briefed on the discussions.
But the source said that despite reports that the video-sharing platform would be taken over by Microsoft, ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming and investors were reluctant to sell to the US company.
[I]f it is able to continue operating in the US, the board of ByteDance will agree to a complete spin-off for the overseas version of the app, which operates under the name Douyin in China.
The new entity would keep the TikTok name, but will have different management and will no longer answer to ByteDance.
“Except for Zhang Yiming, almost all those in the room favour such a spin-off,” the source said. “The mood is kind of: ‘the founder will be out and the house will be ours’.
“But even for Zhang himself, there’s really no other option because the app will be killed if you don’t let it go.”
The spin-off would cover all markets except China where a ByteDance owned app similar to TikTok is run under the name Douyin. A sale to Microsoft would only include the markets in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand and Australia. (Note that Britain is the only member of the 5-eyes club missing here.)
That Microsoft is not really wanting the deal can be gleaned for the convoluted statement it issued yesterday. This is clearly unprecedented language in a public company's communication:
Following a conversation between Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and President Donald J. Trump, Microsoft is prepared to continue discussions to explore a purchase of TikTok in the United States.
Microsoft fully appreciates the importance of addressing the President’s concerns. It is committed to acquiring TikTok subject to a complete security review and providing proper economic benefits to the United States, including the United States Treasury.
Microsoft will move quickly to pursue discussions with TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, in a matter of weeks, and in any event completing these discussions no later than September 15, 2020. During this process, Microsoft looks forward to continuing dialogue with the United States Government, including with the President.
The discussions with ByteDance will build upon a notification made by Microsoft and ByteDance to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
Microsoft may invite other American investors to participate on a minority basis in this purchase.
Microsoft appreciates the U.S. Government’s and President Trump’s personal involvement as it continues to develop strong security protections for the country.
This ass kissing of Trump is not what Microsoft is used to do. Satva Nadella was clearly pressed into publishing this. Such a statement would usually include language about increasing shareholder value or better user experience. This statement has none of that standard sweet talk.
The stock market seems to believe that a takeover of TikTok would be profitable for Microsoft:
bigger
I have my doubts that Microsoft can successfully run a social network business. This one would be restricted to just four countries and it would likely lose access to the continuing development of the app. Where is the potential growth for such a restricted application?
And how will China react if Microsoft takes part in the U.S. raid of ByteDance's business? While China is only contributing some 2% to Microsoft's overall revenue the company's biggest R&D center outside of the U.S. is in China. It contributes to its global success:
“[There has been an] explosion of innovation in China,” [Microsoft President Brad] Smith said. “One of the things that we at Microsoft have long appreciated is the enormous ingenuity of the engineering population of China.”
Microsoft's X-Box game station as well as other hardware it sells is at least partially developed and produced in China. Some of Microsoft's Chinese engineers might have there own ideas on how China should retaliate to the attack on a successful Chinese company. The Trump administration sees that danger and it is pressingMicrosoft to get rid of all its relations with China:
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro suggested on Monday that Microsoft could divest its holdings in China if it were to buy TikTok.
“So the question is, is Microsoft going to be compromised?” Navarro said in an interview with CNN. “Maybe Microsoft could divest its Chinese holdings?”
Leaving China would surely damage Microsoft's long term business. For a global company that country is a too big potential market to be left at the wayside.
But the real question about the mafia raid on ByteDance is who is destined to profit from it.
Today Trump said (vid) that if Microsoft closes the deal a substantial amount should be paid to the Treasury because his administration 'enabled the deal'. He likely didn't consult a lawyer before making that wrongheaded statement.
But who are the "other American investors" who are invited "to participate on a minority basis in this purchase". Reuters had already reported that 'minority investor' clause. Is the wider Trump family involved in this?
Why is that term so important for Trump that Microsoft has felt a need to repeat it in what is essentially a public terms letter addressed to Trump?
Posted by b on August 3, 2020 at 17:47 UTC | Permalink
Hey Kali, China DOES NOT need the US but what you are seeing is a violation of business norms. You say China doesn't allow many apps from entering its market is not the same as the US trying to blackmail a successful Chinese app that have already entered the US market. Since you mentioned Huawei; they own almost the entire 5G technology so either you pay directly or indirectly irregardless if the US bans them or not
Posted by: OJs_White_Bronco | Aug 3 2020 18:09 utc | 2
I was speculating just a day or two ago that Trump must be working to get himself or one of his offspring a piece of that pie. (Well that does seem to be a common MO with Trump.)
Meanwhile Pompeo threatens to outlaw a large number of Chinese "apps". Are they even talking to each other now?
Posted by: Bemildred | Aug 3 2020 18:17 utc | 3
You're authoritarian so we'll be authoritarian too! Genius. /s
Posted by: mesmo | Aug 3 2020 18:17 utc | 4
thanks b... pardon me for saying this, but how much of this is about controlling a company - in this instance tik tok? it was the event at the rally in tulsa where tiktok users gave the trump election rally a jolt by giving it the impression there were going to be a lot of people at the rally, when it fact it bombed.. the reason it bombed was thanks tik tok users.... the usa can't have this happening on their own soil.. it is okay for colour revolutions on others soil, but not on usa soil... everything must be run thru the NSA- CIA.. compliance is assured with fb, twitter, google,amazon, microsoft and etc. etc. but it isn't assured with social media that the usa- nsa has no control over... thus the need to screw with tik tok, just like huawei is about control of the narratives...
frankly, i can't see it working out and as @ 2 ojs wb points out - it is a violation of business norms.... usa-nsa-cia wants to control the narrative is what it looks like to me.. in order for them to do that, the corporation has to be run by usa-friendly multinational corporations where the usa can spy or dictate as the need may be...
Posted by: james | Aug 3 2020 18:20 utc | 5
if US companies aren't allowed to ignore China's rules for business in China, then Chinese companies that follow US rules in the US won't be allowed to succeed. It's the white supremacist way.
Posted by: mijj | Aug 3 2020 18:25 utc | 6
I don't know who's going to benefit from this, but I know they have an army of ideologues working for them:
As I wrote in a column about using a burner phone when I enjoy TikTok, Trump and other tech executives, like Mr. Zuckerberg, are right to say that China and the country’s tech companies threaten American users when it comes to security, data and, more important, influence and propaganda.
[...]
Such pressure is obviously best used to force a sale, as was done with the gay dating service Grindr, to a United States company. And that’s why the Microsoft deal to acquire TikTok makes a lot of sense. With its strong tech security chops, Microsoft is one of the handful of U.S. companies with experience in managing big and complex platforms (besides the massive Windows and Office franchises, the company also owns LinkedIn, Skype and Minecraft).
While there are other American tech giants — Amazon and Apple spring to mind — that could also take on the Chinese security threat, a Microsoft-owned TikTok could also create a healthy and suspicion-free rival to Facebook in the social media space. And Microsoft would fix security issues quicker than taking TikTok public as a U.S. company.
“They should take the Microsoft deal,” Mr. Stamos noted. “It’s the best outcome for the United States, as Microsoft has one of the best security teams in tech, as it prevents a fight over the basic freedom of Americans to use the open Web.”
And, as a bonus:
“The Trump administration needs to look at the next move,” said Alex Stamos, who used to be in charge of stopping foreign incursions at both Facebook and Yahoo and now is director of the Stanford Internet Observatory. “They can block economic activity by TikTok in the U.S., but we fortunately don’t have a Great Firewall in this country. If they push too hard, ByteDance can focus on providing TikTok as a side-loaded Android app and a mobile website, both of which would be impossible for Trump to block.”
Let me translate Mr. Stamos’ geekspeak: If there’s a will to make a TikTok dance video go viral, there’s a way.
And that’s why the United States should support an open internet that touts democratic values using sophisticated strategy, smart policy and large investments in research and innovation, as well as some well-placed cudgels.
What?
--
Meanwhile...
Let’s Scrap the Presidential Debates: They’ve become unrevealing quip contests
Signed by Elizabeth Drew, "a journalist based in Washington".
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the modern Western journalist.
@ Posted by: Kali | Aug 3 2020 17:57 utc | 1
The difference here is that the American companies can't enter the Chinese market because they openly refuse to abide to Chinese Law (i.e. they want imperial powers), while the Chinese companies fully operate in conformation to American Law (including, as is the case, TikTok).
Besides, the West is the one which put the weight of the moral high ground upon itself (Rule of Law, Human Rights, Freedom, etc. etc.), so it is their onus to prove this stance to be geopolitically superior, not China (or, for that matter, Iran, Russia...).
@7 vk
Hilarious. No matter the year or era we find ourselves in, the in-person debate btw candidates is one of the purest and most honest ways that voters can gauge their candidates.
I know Derrida wrote about writing and how speaking in person is the priveleged mode of expression in our world, but we can not be sure that the candidate is the one who actually writes their pieces or who actually truly feels these words.
Here we are again: MSM bias favoring the pure-globalist candidate. It's not surprising.
Posted by: NemesisCalling | Aug 3 2020 18:48 utc | 9
Facebook at one time was operating in China. In 2008-2009 terrorists were using Facebook to coordinate attacks in Xinjiang province. When the Chinese government demanded the information Facebook declined to provide citing privacy issues. After that Facebook was banned.
Posted by: One Too Many | Aug 3 2020 18:50 utc | 10
@OJs_White_Bronco & @vk
Maybe China keeps many apps out of China because they can't control the information?
For example Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Google--maybe they want complete control over what their populations hear or says online? Or maybe it is about cornering the market in China for the same type of apps for Chinese oligarchs? Maybe their reluctance to allow non-CCP approved apps in their market is getting some pushback from America's oligarchy? OR, maybe this is about Tik Tok being so big. I mean Twitter, Google, Youtube, Facebook and so on, ALL ACT AS POLITICAL CENSORS FOR THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND THEIR COUNTERPARTS IN THE FIVE EYES CABAL. With Tik Tok, maybe the Republicans want a huge social media app to be under their political control also? Or maybe Trump is being used by the DEEP STATE to place Tik Tok under the same censorship agenda of the other Tech Giants? Or is this as I originally speculated, all about trying to open China up?
Posted by: Kali | Aug 3 2020 18:52 utc | 11
"For example Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Google--maybe they want complete control over what their populations hear or says online?"
If that's the case why is it not illegal in China to have a VPN? How many strawmen are in that diatribe you just posted? I can only knock down one at a time.
Posted by: One Too Many | Aug 3 2020 18:58 utc | 12
pardon my ignorance, but why not just pull the app from the US market and let US kids suffer and make Trump look even worse? why cave in and sell?
Posted by: Prof K | Aug 3 2020 18:58 utc | 13
@ 11 kali... that is kind of what i am getting at @5... seems like control thru the intel agencies is the game in play.. ''you let us control it, or you don't get to play in this market'' kind of thinking.. obviously the cia version in the ccp doesn't work with the cia....if they did, it would be different...
Posted by: james | Aug 3 2020 18:59 utc | 14
Is the dispute over Tik-Tok really about protecting American citizens?
Non-US companies collect a lot of info about US citizens and citizens of other Western countries via internet apps and other means. And much info is available for sale as well.
Seems more likely that the forced sale is really about protecting the Western establishment and US power-elite. A massive social network is a threat to their control because it could be used to spread anti-US govt messages. Mostly to younger people who are already very cynical (as we can see from the protesting) and thus more willing to accept it as true or reflecting a truth.
Trump impersonator Sarah Cooper got started on TikTok.
Although Sarah's comedy is not a threat to the US power-elite, one can easily imagine messaging that would be:
- USA threatens war against a country and suddenly everyone in USA gets messages that depict Trump/USA as a bully and that create sympathy for the good people of the target country.
- Messaging that decries the harsh and unfair treatment of political prisoners (Assange?);
- Messaging that calls into question the legitimacy of a US Presidential election.
- Messages that mock Trump's blaming China for the pandemic by describing the Trump Administration's inept response to the pandemic.
PS Where's the libertarian mob complaining about government control? Those astro-turfed bullsh*ters are not really interested in issues that they are not paid to be interested in.
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Aug 3 2020 19:01 utc | 15
@ Posted by: Kali | Aug 3 2020 18:52 utc | 11
As you well stated, this "power struggle" argument can be used for any circumstances. We must be more specific if we want to extract useful information.
As of now, the information is that: so far, foreign companies that agree to obey Chinese Law and regulations can operate there normally and without problem, while the same is not true anymore for the USA.
We live in a Nation-State world. Nations are sovereign, and have the right to set up their own regulations and write their own laws. It is the USA, not China, which broke the international pact. There's absolutely no evidence China broke any international convention; the only "crime" it committed seems to be the fact that it is too successful.
Now, if you want to argue against the Nation-State system, then we would be in another discussion altogether.
james @Aug3 18:20 #5
Tulsa rally
Yeah, exactly right.
A great example of people organizing on a non-US platform with an anti-establishment result: disrupting electioneering and embarrassing POTUS!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Aug 3 2020 19:08 utc | 17
Gee, seems the Chinese have a very different view of it all:
"As TikTok's global market influence was skyrocketing, the company was suppressed by the US government. Again, this shows how difficult it is for companies from China to go global. ByteDance said in a statement that it is "committed to becoming a global company." But Washington will not easily let the company off just because of its good wishes.
"The US' decoupling from China starts from killing China's most competitive companies. In the process, Washington ignores rules and is unreasonable. Although suppressing Huawei and TikTok also incurs losses to the US, the suppression can still be implemented in the US. This is because such suppression echoes the sense of crisis instigated by some US elites when facing China's rise.
"Huawei and ByteDance can only provide limited protection to themselves via legal means. But we should not overestimate the US' sense of justice. The country has shown us too many examples of politics overwhelming everything else....
"Huawei has advanced equipment, and ByteDance sells services to the world through unique concepts and technologies. The two companies are pioneers worldwide. They have brought a sense of crisis to US elites, which shows that China's top companies have the ability to move to the forefront of the world in technology. It reflects the power of China as an emerging market. As long as such power continues to expand, these top Chinese companies can eventually break through US suppression.
"By banning Huawei, the US would lag behind in 5G technology. By banning TikTok, the US would harm its own internet diversity and its belief in freedom and democracy. When similar things happen time and again, the US will take steps closer to its decline. The US is a pioneer in global internet and has created Google, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. But in recent years, the US' internet structure has been rigid.
"Rising stars such as ByteDance continue to emerge in Chinese internet sector, showing huge vitality. China knows its deficiencies, strives to become stronger, and adheres to opening-up to the world. The US, however, is gradually being shrouded in arrogance, seclusion and a negative attitude. Chinese people should not be discouraged by temporary setbacks, or our weaker position in the China-US confrontation. What's important is that China's trend of faster-pace progress has not changed....
"The COVID-19 pandemic is an important issue, clearly showing us that the US has fallen into a type of systematic chaos. This will severely limit its ability to indefinitely upgrade and exert pressure on China. Many of the US practices, including banning TikTok, show the country's weakening competitiveness. Can't Facebook just come up with a more powerful app and beat TikTok in the market? The problem is Facebook cannot do it. It can only resort to the brute force of US politics."
As you read, China takes this very differently. It sees the inability of Outlaw US Empire firms to compete and thus seek protection as suggested here:
"Western countries' social media platforms have long dominated, and only a handful of Chinese firms that have entered the arena in recent years have won popularity. TikTok has seen record-high downloads across the world. Per data from an industry analysis platform Sensor Tower in April, TikTok had been downloaded more than 2 billion times globally.
"The US' plan to ban TikTok follows the same logic as its crackdown on Chinese tech firm Huawei. The US has been limiting the 5G frontrunner for years, essentially the result of evolving relations between China and the US-led Western world.
"TikTok and Huawei are not isolated cases. Chinese high-tech firms that expand overseas will encounter different levels of barriers as China develops into a new tech power, giving rise to concerns from countries that feel threatened by Chinese technology.
"The US will not allow a social media platform that enjoys high popularity among younger generations to be operated by a foreign company, especially when the countdown to its presidential election ticks on. Banning TikTok now is, to some extent, also a move by Trump to control public voices after groups of young American TikTok users reportedly upstaged his first large-scale public rally amid the COVID-19 pandemic by registering for tickets and failing to attend.
"With the election drawing near, a plunging second-quarter GDP at negative 32.9 percent, and the world's largest number of coronavirus infections, it is likely the Trump administration will continue rolling out new and even harsher measures to antagonize China and attempt to block it economically." [My Emphasis]
How much revenge and the election play into the drama are unknown, but we know Trump is soft-skinned and very vindictive; Tulsa was a huge embarrassment. Can't compete; erect a tariff wall to protect your weak companies--the Outlaw US Empire demands China "open up" while it closes up instead. As the headline of the first item screamed, "Banning TikTok reflects Washington’s cowardice."
Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 3 2020 19:15 utc | 18
They should let it die with honor so they don't have to live in shame.
Posted by: Thordoom | Aug 3 2020 19:17 utc | 19
vk @ 16 says: "so far, foreign companies that agree to obey Chinese Law and regulations can operate there normally and without problem, while the same is not true anymore for the USA."
Precisely. Every country in the world (including US) has its own national security laws and regulations. Companies like Microsoft, Oracle, SAP that obey Chinese laws/regulations are operating fine in China. Companies like Google and Facebook DECIDED TO QUIT China because they don't want to obey Chinese laws/regulations.
However, these lies about "Chinese banning US software", like the lies about "Chinese forced tech transfer", have been repeated over 1000 times - they are now almost the "truth" in the minds of many, as per Joseph Goebbels: “A lie told once remains a lie but a lie told 1000 times becomes the truth.”
Posted by: d dan | Aug 3 2020 19:27 utc | 20
All I can see in this story is Trump 'helping' the USG/Biz nexus to thoroughly discredit itself as totally untrustworthy & utterly incapable of sticking to ANY deal, Biz or Political.
It's sub-moronic. But I like it 🙂
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Aug 3 2020 19:37 utc | 21
Gotta love the stupid Western capitalists.
First, it was "Let's all invest in China, do a lot of business and move all our factories there because we'll make a shit-ton of $$".
Then, it's "Oh, they're too big and powerful, we need to stop trading and making any kind of business with them".
As some clever guy said about these short-sighted idiots more than a century ago, they're selling the rope with which to hang them.
Posted by: Clueless Joe | Aug 3 2020 19:37 utc | 22
@ 17 jackrabbit.. the upside for the usa-cia- nsa here is they can blame china, just like they have been blaming russia for russiagate, the losts clinton e mails, skripal and lord know how many other bullshit stories... now they can use this against china claiming tiktok is china... welp, that is one possible upside for the cia-usa here.. ultimately it is all downside though, lol...
Posted by: james | Aug 3 2020 19:40 utc | 23
Yeah, this is all about control over censorship. Facebook, twitter, google, youtube, they have all been very busy downranking, blacklisting, shadowbanning or even outright deleting dissident content and accounts.
James correctly points out that a bunch of these malcontents even caused palpable embarrasment for the system. That's scary for them. They operate a Ministry of Propaganda that has untold billions sloshing through its troughs and veins, yet can be derailed by a few minutes of rogue content going viral.
PS did anyone notice how they placed a sentence with the word "Microsoft" right next to a sentence with the words "complete security review"? Could this be coded language to indicate that the proposition is fundamentally unrealistic?
Posted by: Lurk | Aug 3 2020 19:42 utc | 24
The fact that the CEO of Microsoft had to spend any time at all listening to that gibbering shitgibbon-in-chief is bad enough, but to have to in addition issue a groveling nonsensical public statement like that is beyond pathetic.
The entire episode reveals gross hypocrisy, rampant corruption, weakness and a willingness for the US government to engage in censorship.
Posted by: snow_watcher | Aug 3 2020 19:50 utc | 25
In this Sputnik analysis, Philip Giraldi and Paul Craig Roberts offer their take on the Anti-China escalation of which the TikTok affair is the newest act. They contend that Trump's actions are the result of Outlaw US Empire weakness in numerous areas that predate COVID and are now more obvious thanks to Trump's continuing gross ineptitude over that crisis. The economic hemorrhaging will continue apace until the election and beyond thus bringing the Dollar Crisis into focus much sooner as Crooke relates here:
"Bubbles are one factor, but there are also signs of the tectonic plates drifting apart in a different way, but no less threatening. Bankers Goldman Sachs sits at the very heart of the western financial system – and incidentally staffs much of Team Trump, as well as the Federal Reserve.
"And Goldman wrote something this week that one might not expect from such a system stalwart: Its commodity strategist Jeffrey Currie, wrote that [Link at original] 'real concerns around the longevity of the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency have started to emerge'.
"What? Goldman says the dollar might lose its reserve currency status. Unthinkable? Well that would be the standard view. Dollar hegemony and sanctions have long been seen as Washington’s stranglehold on the world through which to preserve U.S. primacy. America’s ‘hidden war’, as it were. Trump clearly views the dollar as the bludgeon that can make America Great Again. Furthermore, as Trump and Mnuchin – and now Congress – have taken control of the Treasury arsenal, the roll-out of new sanctions bludgeoning has turned into a deluge....
"And this week, the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations issued a paper entitled: It is Time to Abandon Dollar Hegemony. [Link at original]
"That, we repeat, is the globalist line. The CFR has been a progenitor of both the European and Davos projects. It is not Trump’s. He is fighting to keep America as the seat of western power, and not to accede that role to Merkel’s European project – or to China.
"So why would Goldman Sachs say such a thing? Attend carefully to Goldman’s framing: It is not the Davos line. Instead, Currie writes that the soaring disconnect between spiking gold price and a weakening dollar 'is being driven by a potential shift in the U.S. Fed towards an inflationary bias, against a backdrop of rising geopolitical tensions, elevated U.S. domestic political and social uncertainty, and a growing second wave of covid-19 related infections'.
"Translation: It is about U.S. explosive debt accumulation, on account of the Coronavirus lockdown. In a world where there is already over $100 trillion in dollar-denominated debt, on which the U.S. cannot default; nor will it ever be repaid. It can therefore only be inflated away. That is to say the debt can only be managed through debasing the currency. (Debt jubilees are viewed as beyond the pale.)
"That is to say, Goldman’s man says dollar debasement is firmly on the Fed agenda. And that means that 'real concerns around the longevity of the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency, have started to emerge'.
"It is a nuanced message: It hints that the monetary experiment, which began in 1971, is ending. Currie is telling U.S. that the U.S. is no longer able to manage an economy with this much debt – simply by printing new currency, and with its hands tied on other options. The debt situation already is unprecedented – and the pandemic is accelerating the process.
"In short, things are starting to spin out of control, which is not the same as advocating a re-boot. And the debasement of money is inevitable. That’s why Currie points to the disconnect between the gold price (which usually governments like to repress), and a weakening dollar. If it is out of the Fed’s control, it is ultimately (post-November) out of Trump’s hands, too." [My Emphasis]
As Max Keiser reveled in last week, The Fiat Ponzi is finally ending, and with that will come a massive reshuffling--a Paradigm Change. Lots of smoke's being generated to cover the actual fire, wherein TrumpCo can be seen as the firemen in Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, burning the currency instead of books. And as Crooke notes, many other nations are tied to the Dollar's demise.
Posted by: karlof1 | Aug 3 2020 20:00 utc | 26
Kali @11: "...maybe they want complete control..."
Hysterical hyperbole much?
Child pornography is outlawed in the US. Businesses are not allowed to broadcast it, publish it, or host it on their servers. Clearly the government "wants complete control"!
China has laws. Just because a company doesn't agree with those laws doesn't mean that company can ignore them and still do business in China. Can a business open shop in the US and ignore America's laws? Of course not, so why should it be any different for doing business in China?
Try to imagine, for instance, the Russia-based social media platform VK.com being used by active terrorist cells murdering people in the USA. Now imagine the FBI gets a court order for VK.com to turn over those terrorists' communications so that the FBI can prevent the next head chopping spree by those terrorists in Times Square, but VK.com refuses to comply. Would you be OK with that? That is precisely what Facebook did in China, as One Too Many @10 pointed out. It is not even as if China's laws in this regard are so different from America's. After all, your communications online are monitored by the NSA, and even your posts here are data-mined by the CIA, the FBI, and even your local state police if they want to.
Posted by: William Gruff | Aug 3 2020 20:15 utc | 27
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"b" is Moon of Alabama's founding (and chief) editor. This site's purpose is to discuss politics, economics, philosophy and blogger Billmon's Whiskey Bar writings. Moon Of Alabama was opened as an independent, open forum for members of the Whiskey Bar community. Bernhard )"b") started and still runs the site. Once in a while you will also find posts and art from regular commentators. You can reach the current administrator of this site by emailing Bernhard at MoonofA@aol.com. 
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
I know B says this is about stealing, but maybe this is about sending China a message about how it does business in general. As you should know by now, China disallows many American apps in China. Is this a message to China about how America and maybe American allies will do business with them from now on? First Huawei and now Tik Tok and next who knows what? It looks to me like the message to China is: Follow the Golden Rule, which is not "whoever has the most gold rules" but is instead "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
Posted by: Kali | Aug 3 2020 17:57 utc | 1